Flat hosiery frame



Dec. 6, 1932. G TH|ERFELDER 1,890,200

FLAT HOSIERY FRAME Filed April 24. 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 6, 1932.G. THIERFELDER 1,890,200

FLAT HOSIERY FRAME Filed April 24. 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3llllhhhhllllllllll 9 Patented Dec. 6, 1932 UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICEApplication led April 24, 1981, Serial No. 532,624, and in Germany Hay6, 1930.

The present invention relates to flat hosiery frames.

In fiat hosiery machines, the known covering, loose course, lace,striping and similar attachments are controlled till now by means ofchains provided with cams, each of the attachments mentioned requiring,as a rule, for its operation a special chain. This arrangement suffersfrom the drawback that the various chains concerned have to becontrolled separately andin addition, adjusted exactly relative to oneanother corresponding to the number of courses. Special difficulties areconnected particularly with the resetting of the machine, an operationwhich can therefore be carried out only by a person thoroughly familiarwith the machine, while the adj ustrnent of the chains is equallyditlicult and consumes much time. Furthermore, in view of the high costof chains, this troublesome work has to be undertaken for each attern.To remove these defects it has een proposed to controlatheattachmentsementioned by a jacquard device. However, as these at- 25tachments are disposed at different spots in the machine, they are moreor less inaccessible tothe jacquard device, and the technicaldifiiculties are increased still more by the fact that the mot-ionsrequired for controlling the various attachments differ totally from oneanother and, with respect to some of the attachments, are of dii'erentsize also so that a single control mechanism along these lines wouldbecome too complex and bulky to insure proper operation. v`

According to the present invention, the control of the variousattachments is effected by means of a current-carrying movable roller ofknown type arranged at a suitable place within the machine. Over theroller a nonconducting band is guided provided with perforationsaccording to the requisite control of the various attachments andcarrying a plurality of levers whose points come in contact with theroller on meeting a hole in the band. The lever, on coming in Contactwith the roller, closes a circuit connected with an electromagnct whichis excited and initiates 50 the control motion at the desired point ofthe covering, loose course,.lace onchangingttachment. y

Electromagnetic controls in knitting machines are known per se. Incircular knitt-ers, they are used only for selecting the needlesaccording to pattern and raising them and in Hat knitting machines theyadjust the cams besides the needles. It is further known to adjustthebrakes of the yarn guide bars in iiat hosiery frames byelectromagnets excited by the closing of the circuit of the controlroller and adapted to actuate the bars. However, in all the knownarrangements it is not necessary to impart to the members to be adjustedby the electromagnet a motion diftering in size according tocircumstances. as required, for example, by the open clock coveringsegments in cotton machines, and it is therefore impossible to equip adat frame with one of the known electromagnetic pattern devices. Thisexplains why the advantages connected with such an arran ement wereunattainabletill now in flat osiery frames.

The invention makes it possible to control the various units, such asthe open clock, striping or similar attachments, which have to beadjusted for different distances, from the electromagnetic patterndevice by providing a special electromagnet for each distance to whichthe attachment has to be adjusted separately and by connecting themagnets not directly to the attachments to be adjusted but causing themto act on interposed devices by meansfot` which the motion ot eachmagnet is converted into distances of different size by levertransmission, variation of stroke, stepped wedges or the like. If it istaken into consideration that the segments of the open clock coveringattachment must be adjusted, for instance, to six different heightswhile other attachments require an entirely different adjustment, -it isevident that au electromagnetic pattern device can be used in connectionwith a flat hosiery frame only if the stroke converting means areinterposed which are outlined above.

One form of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings,in which Figure 1 is a view of the left-hand end of a flat No patternroller with the feeler levers; Fig. 5,

a front View' thereof; Fig. G, a sectional view seen from the side ofthe device for adjusting the clock segments; and Fig. 7, a front viewthereof.

Referring to the drawings, on the left-hand side of the flat hosieryframe shown the pattern roller 1 is positioned above the narrowingspindles and moved from a suitable point in each course by its feedwheel 2 and pawl 3.

The roller 1 comprises a metal cylinder arranged on a nonconductingroller 4 and supplied at a suitable point with current by means of thesliding Contact 5. Over the metal acket v1 of the pattern cylinder anonconducting band 6 is guided provided on both sides with theuniformly7 spaced holes 7 registering with pins projecting from thejacket 1. Above the roller 1 the requisite number of feeler levers 8,which are insulated relative to one another, is movably disposed on thetwo opposite shafts 9 and hugged at a suitable point by the currentcollectors 10. The nonconducting band 6, according to pattern and thenumber of levers 8, is provided with holes in the known manner. Thecurrent supplied to the metal jacket of the pattern roller 1 istransmitted to a lever 8 when the point of the latter engages a hole ofthe band 6 underneath whereby a circuit is closed and an electromagnetconnected therewith is excited. The band 6 contains as many holes andabove them are disposed as many levers 8 as motions are required forcontrolling the various attachments mentioned. tachments are actuated bycarrying out movements differing in nature and'size, specialintermediatedevices are arranged in front of the attachments andactuated by the magnets excited by the pattern roller- 1, the devicesbeing shaped so that the stroke of the armatures of the magnets istransformed into larger or smaller motions of these intermediatedevices.

The adjustment of the-movable segments 11 limiting the path of the clockspindles requires, for example, as many motions of different extent ofthe intermediate device concerned as are steps 12 in the segments 11. Tomake this possible, the machine is provided at a suitable point with theguide 13 in which from an eccentric gear or the like by means'of thelever 14 a box 15 is moved to and fr0 containing the electromagnets 22whose number As the )different atcorresponds to the control motions tobe carried out by a segment 11. In the longitudinal direction of the box15 and corresponding to the number of segments 11 the slots 16 areprovided wherein the racks 17 are displaceably disposed with their teeth26 pointing downwardly. Each rack 17 is connected by means of a rope 18or 4the like over a roll 19 with a segment 11, the spring 20 of whichtheir nonmagnetic ends 25 project into thel recesses 27 formed betweenthe teeth 26 of the rack 17.,v The recesses 27 differ in size so thatthe core 23 of the left-hand magnet 22 (Fig. 6) at the closing of thecircuit concerned would hug directly the vertical edge of the recesses27 while the distances from the vertical edges up to the magnet coresincrease progressivelv towards the right. For each magnet 22 a feelerlever 8 is provided on the pattern roller 1, which. over the roller 1,closes the circuit for the various electromagnets and interrupts it whenthe lever rests on the card G.

The device described functions as follows.

rl`he box 15 carrying the magnets 22 is moved once to and fro withineach course or during the covering step only by means of the lever 1-1and the eccentric gear, not shown. For example.v if the step 124 of thesegment 11 is to be adjusted, the corresponding lever 8 will find in itstrack on the band 6 a perforation through which, over the pattern roller1, it will close the circuit concerned of the magnet 224 so that thecore 23 of this magnet j 224 is lifted to such an extent as to cause itsportion 25 to project into the recess 274 of the rack 17, each core 23possessing at its upper end a nonmagnetic part 25 toprevent themagnetized core from sticking to the rack. As the core 23 or its portion25 are farther away from the edge of the recess 274 than, for instance,the core opposite to the recess 27 (to the left in Fig. 6), the rack 171s driven during the forward motion of the box 15 in the direction ofthe varrow only when the part 25 engages the edge. rl`he motion impartedthereby to the rack l? is just large enough to bring the step 12t intothe path ot the projection 28 of the bolt 29. If, for example,` thefirst magnet 22 (to the left in Fig. G) would be excited, the entiremotion of the box 15 would be imparted to the rack 17 and the segment 11concerned drawn down to suchy owing to the action of the springs 2Odrawing back the segments 11, are caught also and released by the magnetconcerned by the opening of the circuit due to the motion of the roller1 so that the core 23 with its part drops oil.

The device could be altered in so far as the racks 17 could be movedpositively to and fro instead of the box 15, or the magnets 22 could bespaced unevenly for the different paths of motion and the racks 17toothed uniformly.

To adjust the roll 31 causing the changing motion of the main shaft orthe loose course attachment (not shown) or similar attachments, a member32 capable of being raised and lowered is employed to which,corresponding to the number of attachments to be controlled, levers 34are secured which can move about the pivot 33. The levers 34 areprovided with a stop with which they rest on a stationary bolt 36 wheninoperative. The motion of these levers 34 is transmitted to theattachments to be adjusted by the rods 38. The member 32 is constructedto form a guide in which the carriage 39 is vertically displaceablyarranged and connected on top with a lever 50 which can be raised andlowered once within each course from the eccentric gear 51 or the like.The carriage 39 is provided under the noses 37 of the levers 34 with aguide 40 in which the adjusting keys 41 having steps of various heightslare displaceably guided and continually drawn back to the stop 43 bythe springs 42. To the other end of these adjusting keys 41 the ropes 44or the like are secured which can be infiuenced by magnets (notshown)arranged in a box 45 and operating in the manner described. For eachadjustable key 41 a magnet is provided, and each magnet has its feelerlever 8. The levers 34 are influenced in so far as, prior to theiradjustment by the electromagnets, the keys 41 are removed from the noses37 of the levers 34 by the lowering of the carriage 39 (Figs. 2 and 3).At this moment the card 6 is moved with the pattern roller 1, and if alever 8 meets a perforation in the band 6, its magnet is excited and theadjusting key concerned is drawn against the action of the spring 42until its step is located below the nose 37 of one of the levers 34. Ifthe carriage 39 is then brought up again into its initial position bythe rod 50, the nose 37 of one of the levers 34 will hug the step of thekey 41, whereby. the lever 34 is swung to the right (Fig. 2) and its rod38 transmits this motion to the part to be adjusted.

For each lever 34 any desired number of keys 41 having steps ofdifferent height may be provided. In the modification shown only twokeys are used for moving the lever 34 more or less. It is furtherpossible to i provide for each lever only one key 4l having a andadapted to be drawn out more or less by means of a device similar tothat described in connection with the adjustment of the seg-- ments 11.

As the electric pattern device is moved forward at each course, aspecial course counter as employed in the known devices can be dispensedwith.

I claim 1. In a Hat hosiery frame, distance converting means interposedbetween the electric pattern device and the attachment to becontrolled,comprising a displaceable carrier, racks displaceably arranged inslotted members connected with the machine and adapted to be driven bythe said carrier, electromagnets corresponding in number to theadjusting range of the attachment and arranged on the said carrier, acoil forming part of each magnet, and armature cores in the said magnetsdisposed loosely in the said coil and ada ted to be drawn by the magnetand to extend into notches of the said racks, the teeth of the saidracks being spaced differently to vary the distance over which the racksare driven by the said carrier.

2. In a flat hosiery frame, distance converti g means interposed betweenthe electric pattern device and the attachment to be controlled,comprising oscillatory levers, adjustable keys with steps of diferentheight adapted to limit the motion of the said levers, and means forremoving the said levers from the said keys prior to the adjustment ofthe latter.

3. A flat hosiery frame, means whereby the same is electricallycontrolled according to pattern over different distances, andcomprisinf; an electromagnetic pattern device adapted to controldiierent moving attachments. movable armature cores having a stroke ofunvarying size arranged inthe electro-magnets ofthe pattern device, andmeans adapted to efect the different motions and paths of theattachments to be controlled and initiated by the electro-magneticpattern device, the said meansdesigned for converting' the armaturestroke of unvarying size into movements according to the pattern feedmotions of the attachments to be controlled.

4. A flat hosiery frame, means whereby the same is electricallycontrolled according to pattern over different distances, andcomprisingan electromagnetic pattern device adapted to control movablearmature cores having a stroke of unvaryng size arranged in theelectro-magnets of the pattern device, and means adapted to effect thedifferent motions and paths of the attachments to be controlled andinitiated by the electro-magnetic device, the said means designed forconverting the armature stroke vof unvarying size according to thepattern feed motions of the attachments to be conplurality of stepsdiiiering in height different moving attachments,

trolled, magnets cooperating with and corresponding in number to thedifferent motions to be carried out by the converting means, eachymagnet initiating a different sized motion.

In testimony whereof I have axed my signature.

i GUIDO THIERFELDER.

